The Ethisphere Institute, that go by the motto: “Good. Smart. Business. Profit.”, says it is a national organization dedicated to ethics in business conducted the research, analysing 1,000 federal government contractors as part of the 2008 ratings. The ratings were based on an objective analysis of four categories: code of ethics and business conduct; leadership and tone from the top; internal control systems; ethics training and communication programs.

Dedicated to the research, creation, and sharing of best practices in business ethics, compliance, sustainability, and corporate governance and citizenship, the Council is comprised of over 200 institutions and corporations, including Deutsche Telekom, Time Warner, Avaya and Kraft. Ethisphere Magazine is the quarterly publication of the Institute, created to illuminate the important correlation between ethics and profits. The motto of the Institute is “Good. Smart. Business. Profit.”

"The 'above standard' rating and our ranking of 21st among 1,000 top contractors demonstrates we have established a strong compliance program, a program that we can all be proud of and one that exceeds the new federal acquisition regulation,” said Executive Vice President and General Counsel Al Gonzalez, who is responsible for Ethics, Compliance, and Internal Audit for Tyson Foods.

Tyson says its programme includes annual ethics and Code of Conduct training, as well as a Corporate Compliance Department responsible for helping Team Members deal with the challenges of doing business the right way. This includes providing a toll-free Ethics Help Line as a confidential way for Team Members to ask about ethical business matters or to report suspected misconduct without fear of retaliation.